Below are what I consider as the top 2 biggest misunderstandings regarding electronic proofreading.

Let’s start by defining what I mean by electronic proofreading for this particular post: Electronic proofreading is meant here as text or image comparison, (i.e.: is it the same text or not) which has nothing to do with the quality of the grammar for example, and also nothing to do with translation. Just plain word by word comparison.

1) Software replaces users:

Many people new to electronic proofreading think that the software will replace them. The good news is that this is not the case: The software can only highlight the differences, but the “human intelligence” is needed for decision making. We won’t let Software decide what is correct and what is not correct, this is the job of the user. In other words, the software works with you and for you, not against you.

2) Automatic Comparison:

The second big misunderstanding is that a full comparison can be done automatically. Okay, technically it is possible since version 5.5 of the Text Verification Tool (TVT), however as mentioned earlier, since a “human” is required for decision making, to have a full automatic comparison makes no sense, even if it is technically possible.